Brand strategist vs creative director

The differences between brand strategists and creative directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 8-10 years to become a brand strategist, becoming a creative director takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a creative director has an average salary of $137,779, which is higher than the $120,948 average annual salary of a brand strategist.

The top three skills for a brand strategist include brand strategy, digital marketing and project management. The most important skills for a creative director are graphic design, creative concepts, and creative direction.

Brand strategist vs creative director overview

	Brand Strategist	Creative Director
Yearly salary	$120,948	$137,779
Hourly rate	$58.15	$66.24
Growth rate	10%	4%
Number of jobs	53,223	11,610
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 79%	Bachelor's Degree, 77%
Average age	39	40
Years of experience	10	6

What does a brand strategist do?

A brand strategist is in charge of spearheading the marketing campaigns designed to improve brand awareness and visibility. Working together with marketing experts and managers, a brand strategist must perform marketing research and analysis to identify marketing opportunities and customer needs, developing marketing programs and projects along the way. Furthermore, a brand strategist must coordinate with different teams to put the strategies into motion. They may participate in creating campaign materials, managing the budget, liaising with clients, and producing progress reports as needed.

What does a creative director do?

A creative director is an individual who creates and maintains a vision for a company's products and branding through digital, print, and film installations. Creative directors supervise and innovative staff team such as graphic designers and artists to discuss and plan the vision's layout and visuals. They also meet with clients or marketing and advertising departments to create designs and make the necessary changes to the systems. Most creative directors must have a bachelor's degree in fine arts and should build work portfolios while starting their careers as graphic designers or photographers.

Brand strategist vs creative director salary

Brand strategists and creative directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Brand Strategist	Creative Director
Average salary	$120,948	$137,779
Salary range	Between $89,000 And $164,000	Between $82,000 And $228,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	Menlo Park, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	California
Best paying company	Meta	Apple
Best paying industry	Start-up	Technology

Differences between brand strategist and creative director education

There are a few differences between a brand strategist and a creative director in terms of educational background:

	Brand Strategist	Creative Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 79%	Bachelor's Degree, 77%
Most common major	Marketing	Graphic Design
Most common college	University of Wisconsin - Madison	Harvard University

Brand strategist vs creative director demographics

Here are the differences between brand strategists' and creative directors' demographics:

	Brand Strategist	Creative Director
Average age	39	40
Gender ratio	Male, 48.8% Female, 51.2%	Male, 64.7% Female, 35.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.5% Asian, 7.8% White, 66.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	10%	11%

Differences between brand strategist and creative director duties and responsibilities

Brand strategist example responsibilities.

Manage global product development teams with cross-functional oversight for manufacturing, sourcing, finance, design and supply chain management.
Create and execute tremendously successful Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest contest and sweepstakes that encourage interaction and increase brand visibility.
Assist clients in leveraging their large Facebook communities to grow their other social channels.
Aggregate data for case study development to demonstrate ROI of each campaign to client.
Work with clients to convert business & marketing questions into measurable KPIs and analysis plans.
Work across major functional areas such as finance and sales to generate new customer acquisition and drive ROI.

Creative director example responsibilities.

Manage designers and lead entire in-house healthcare creative department.
Manage all social media outlets and create Youtube channel.
Create, direct, and produce engaging videos and manage Instagram page.
Manage staff including designers, producers, HTML designers, creative writers, and developers; interview and select candidates.
Manage multiple social media profiles (corporate twitter accounts and blogs) to strategically increase readership and draw website traffic.
Develop and manage business-to-business PowerPoint presentation service that create new business opportunities and increase revenue for the company.

Brand strategist vs creative director skills

Common brand strategist skills

Brand Strategy, 13%
Digital Marketing, 5%
Project Management, 4%
Marketing Campaigns, 4%
Brand Marketing, 4%
Integrated Marketing, 4%

Common creative director skills

Graphic Design, 6%
Creative Concepts, 6%
Creative Direction, 6%
Video Production, 5%
Photography, 5%
Digital Marketing, 4%

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Brand Strategist
Brand Strategist vs Creative Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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